Release Week: 9 August 2022
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Release Week: 9 August 2022
Posted on 2022-08-09 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Manmade Constellations By: Misha Lazzara, read by Tavia Gilbert for Blackstone -- "A modern-day love story that explores childhood trauma, the boundaries between idealism and self-righteousness, and the heartaches we must confront in order to chart our courses forward."
High Times in the Low Parliament By: Kelly Robson, read by Amy Scanlon for Recorded Books -- "Lana Baker is Aldgate's finest scribe. She has a sharp pen and an even sharper wit. Gregarious, charming, and ever so eager to please, she agrees to deliver a message for another lovely scribe in exchange for kisses and ends up getting sent to Low Parliament by a temperamental fairy as a result. There, she transcribes the endless circular arguments of Parliament."
The Art of Prophecy By: Wesley Chu, read by Natalie Naudus for Random House -- "So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A chosen one. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny. But this is not that kind of story. It does begin with a prophecy: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom. And that prophecy did anoint a hero, Jian, raised since birth in luxury and splendor, and celebrated before he has won a single battle. But that’s when the story hits its first twist: The prophecy is wrong."
Mount Chicago: A Novel By: Adam Levin, read by Dennis Boutsikaris for Random House -- "From the award-winning author of Bubblegum and The Instructions, a daring new novel about the absurdity, the humor, and the tragedy of survivorship. A one-in-ten-billion natural disaster devastates Chicago. A Jewish comedian, his most devoted fan, and the city’s mayor must struggle to move forward while the world—quite literally—caves beneath their feet. With this polyphonic tale of Chicago-style politics and political correctness, stand-up comedy and Jewish identity, celebrity, drugs, and animal psychology, Levin has constructed a monument to laughter, love, art, and resilience in an age of spectacular loss."
Midnight on the Marne By: Sarah Adlakha, read by John Pirhalla and Saskia Maarleveld for Macmillan -- "France, 1918. Nurse Marcelle Marchand has important secrets to keep. Her role as a spy has made her both feared and revered, but it has also put her in extreme danger from the approaching German army. American soldier George Mountcastle feels an instant connection to the young nurse. But in times of war, love must wait. Soon, George and his best friend Philip are fighting for their lives during the Second Battle of the Marne, where George prevents Philip from a daring act that might have won the battle at the cost of his own life. On the run from a victorious Germany, George and Marcelle begin a new life with Philip and Marcelle’s twin sister, Rosalie, in a brutally occupied France. Together, this self-made family navigates oppression, near starvation, and unfathomable loss, finding love and joy in unexpected moments. Years pass, and tragedy strikes, sending George on a course that could change the past and rewrite history. Playing with time is a tricky thing. If he chooses to alter history, he will surely change his own future—and perhaps not for the better."
The Women Could Fly By: Megan Giddings, read by Angel Pean for Harper -- "A biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times—a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in which witches are real and single women are closely monitored."
Bronze Drum By: Phong Nguyen, read by Quyen Ngo for Grand Central -- "A stunning novel of ancient Vietnam based on the true story of two warrior sisters who raised an army of women to overthrow the Han Chinese and rule as kings over a united people, for listeners of Circe and The Night Tiger."
The Awoken By: Katelyn Monroe Howes, read by Sarah Naughton for Penguin -- "A cinematic, speculative debut about a woman who undergoes cryogenic preservation at the time of her death and wakes up a century later in a world where her very life is a crime."
The Monsters We Defy By: Leslye Penelope, read by Shayna Small for Redhook -- "A woman able to communicate with spirits must assemble a ragtag crew to pull off a daring heist to save her community in this timely and dazzling historical fantasy that weaves together African American folk magic, history, and romance."
The Babysitter Lives By: Stephen Graham Jones, read by Isabella Star LaBlanc for Simon and Schuster -- "A mind-bending haunted house tale from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones."
Widowland By: C. J. Carey, read by Esther Wane for Blackstone -- "To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature."
The Water Witch By: Jessica Thorne, read by Helen Keeley for Hachette UK -- "Brittany, France. Ariadne Walker’s fiancé, Simon, drowned in the stormy Atlantic Ocean doing what he loved: searching for the lost underwater city of Ys. Local legend says it was destroyed centuries ago when the princess of Ys became a water witch, cursing the name of the man who betrayed her."
Roadkill By: Dennis E. Taylor, read by Ray Porter for Audible Originals -- "Jack Kernigan is having a bad day…a bad year…a bad life. After being booted out of MIT, he’s back in his Ohio hometown, working for the family business, facing a life of mediocrity. Then one day, out on a delivery, his truck hits…something. Something big…something furry…something invisible. And, it turns out, something not of this Earth."
BACKLIST WATCH:
Sultana's Dream and Padmarag By: Rokeya Hossain (1905), translated by Barnita Bagchi, introduction by Tanya Agathocleous, read by Priya Ayyar for Penguin Classics -- "As a pioneering work of science fiction and feminist utopian literature at the turn of the century, Sultana’s Dream is strikingly advanced in its critique of patriarchy, war, industrialization, and the exploitation of the natural world, speaking to the concerns of our contemporary world as much as its own. At a time when British colonialism was using the treatment of women in India as justification for colonial intervention there, Hossain’s story, in imagining a world in which men rather than women are kept inside, positions her protest against Islamic patriarchy within a larger feminist vision that takes on Western as well as Islamic forms of gender hierarchy."
The Black By: Paul E. Cooley (2014, 2022), read by Joe Hempel for Fireside Audio -- "Under 30,000 feet of water, the experimental exploration rig Leaguer has discovered an oil field larger than Saudi Arabia, with oil so sweet and pure, nations would go to war for the rights to it. But as the team starts drilling exploration well after exploration well in their race to claim the sweet crude, a deep rumbling beneath the ocean floor shakes them all to their core. Something has been living in the oil, and it's about to give birth to the greatest threat humanity has ever seen."
SERIES WATCH:
Glacier's Edge: The Way of the Drow, Book 2 By: R. A. Salvatore, read by Victor Bevine for Harper -- "The follow-up to Starlight Enclave and thrilling second novel in his newest trilogy, The Way of the Drow, expanding the Forgotten Realms through the adventures of Drizzt, Catti-brie, Jarlaxle, Artemis Entreri, and Zaknefein…and a society of drow unlike one any elf from Menzoberranzan could possibly imagine."
The Family Remains By: Lisa Jewell, read by Dominic Thorburn, Bea Holland, Hugh Quarshie, Josh Dylan, Thomas Judd, Eleanor Tomlinson for Simon and Schuster -- "An intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs."
Councilor: The Grand Illusion, Book 2 By: L. E. Modesitt Jr., read by Michael Bower for Macmillan -- "Continues his brand-new gaslamp, political fantasy series with Councilor, the thrilling sequel to Isolate. Welcome to the Grand Illusion."
Head Case: Starship for Sale, Book 2 By: M. R. Forbes, read by Dave Jackson for Quirky Algorithms -- "It was one thing to take a job as a smuggler to pay for basic necessities like maintenance, fuel, and food. Another to have one of the most powerful nobles in the galaxy gunning for him at every turn. But when Keep turns up unexpectedly with a new offer that’s even wilder than the last, will it put him on the path toward his true destiny? Or is it just another con?"
Travelers: A Freaks Novel, Book 2 By: Brett Riley, read by P.J. Morgan for Imbrifex -- "Falling in love. Evading the authorities. Chasing the rabbits."
Gilded Ghost: The Ripple System, Book 3 By: Kyle Kirrin, read by Travis Baldree for Portal -- "Now the site of EBO’s first completed Red Cathedral, the Onyx Delta has become the center of the virtual world, and the entire player base is descending on Ned’s city to try their hand at the fearsome new raid and reap the game-changing rewards within."
TIE-IN WATCH:
Heat 2: A Novel By: Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner, read by Peter Giles for Harper -- "An explosive return to the world and characters of his classic film Heat—an all-new story that illuminates what happened before and after the iconic film."
Predator: Eyes of the Demon edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, read by Stacy Gonzalez, Kevin Kenerly, Joe Hempel, Lucy Rayner, Traber Burns, Natalie Naudus, Hillary Huber, Bradford Hastings, John McLain, Neil Shah, and Sarah Mollo-Christensen for Blackstone -- "A brand-new anthology from a diverse lineup of authors, offering taut and dramatic exclusive tales set on Earth and in dark reaches of space, featuring the ultimate hunters known as Predators."
Halo: The Rubicon Protocol By: Kelly Gay, read by Scott Brick for Simon and Schuster -- "December 2559. Humanity has its back against the wall after the United Nations Space Command flagship Infinity drops out of slipspace into a devastating ambush launched by the Banished."
INDIE WATCH:
- Tiny Souls By: Phoenix Grey, read by Ellory Lane for Royal Guard Publishing -- "After a string of bad luck left her newly orphaned and homeless, Kara Andrews never expected to be approached by an angel. God sent the angel on a search for a pure soul to complete objectives in other worlds, and his crosshairs landed on her. The reward is worth fighting for. Seven worlds. Seven opportunities for failure. One chance to bring her family home. But the adventure is unlike anything she ever expected...."
MOST MISSING:
Maror by Lavie Tidhar (Apollo) -- "A multi-generational saga with cultural and political depth, drawing on the rich, often troubling recent history of Israel, for fans of A History of Seven Killings or The White Tiger."
The Honey Talker by Malcolm Havard (Northodox) -- "May 1997 Election night. Blair’s New Labour is predicted to win with a landslide. It feels like a new start for everyone, the grey days of sleaze are over. There’s a new hope that things really are about to get better. But not for Aidan. He’s a reporter whose life and career are going nowhere, relegated to a backwater job within the paper, existing on a diet of fast food and with virtually every day starting with a stinking hangover. He’s clinging on to his job by his fingernails. Then, after a terrifying road-rage incident, the story of his life drops in his lap. It looks like the chance to make his name and salvage his career. But within 24 hours his best friend is dead, he’s forced to work with Suzie, a combative, abrasive, ambitious younger colleague whilst the most powerful gangster in Manchester hunts Aidan armed with a weapon no one can resist."